It is an unfortunate reality that three out of every four American women will fall victim to at least one violent crime during their lifetime. As a result, it is clear that there is a need for systems and methods for providing women with security. While a plurality of such systems and methods have been disclosed, even the combined prior art continues to suffer from a number of shortcomings that have prevented the arrangements of the prior art from achieving widespread success and usage. As a result, most such systems and methods of the prior art have remained primarily theoretical in nature. As a result, they have represented little actual improvement in the safety of women.
For example, many prior art self-protection devices for women are of dubious effectiveness. Other arrangements can additionally or alternatively present a danger to the female user in that the device that was intended to defend the woman could be converted into a weapon against her. In a still further shortcoming, many prior art devices demand that the woman brandish a hand-held device or its equivalent. As such, they require acts of aggression on the part of the user thereby rendering them unappealing to many users, particularly females. For these and further reasons, it is apparent that the conception and design of most prior art self-protection devices fail to accommodate the special and different needs of female users.
In any event, one knowledgeable in the art will be aware that a number of self-defense apparatuses, including some intended to be worn by the user, have sought to protect the user by enabling him or her to inflict an electrical charge on a hostile party. Exacting an electrical shock on an assailant at a suitable level certainly can be an appropriate and effective non-lethal means for confronting attacks on one's person. However, providing an electrically charged wearable that can exact such a shock has presented inventors of the prior art with a plurality of significant challenges that have been left substantially unmet.
Most basically, it is clear that the user must be confident that she can induce the electrical charge in a reliable and substantially immediate manner. Just as importantly, for the wearable to be usable in everyday life, it must be ensured that the wearable cannot become armed and charged unintentionally. Still further, to be most effective, it would be preferable if the charge to be exhibited by the wearable could be selectively controlled or calibrated to accommodate varied circumstances.
In light of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that a wearable overcoming one or more of the challenges described above would represent a useful advance in making non-lethal, electrically charged apparel a practical self-defense solution, particularly for female users. It will be further appreciated that an electrically charged wearable that would provide a solution to each of the shortcomings of the prior art while demonstrating a plurality of additional refinements thereover would represent a significant advance in the art.